Canuck Place 15 Year Anniversary & Family Party

Sunday we all went to the annual Canuck Place family BBQ which was also celebrating their 15 year anniversary. We had a great Family day at Vandusen Gardens. Angeline's highlight was the bubble machine... she would migrate to it whenever we put her down saying "bubbles...bubbles!" David's favorite was probably meeting Fin and high fiving the Superman Smart Bread Sandwich guy (large piece of bread walking around in red boots and a cape). Jonathan's highlight was probably the photo booth and the walk around the gardens. I enjoyed just being out the 4 of us. It really was an amazing day with lots of smiles and a few tears as well. As a young girl sang on stage in her wheel chair I couldn't help but be sad that I wasn't able to continue to witness Noah's accomplishments. Still I am very thankful for the role Canuck Place has played in Noah's life and continues to play in ours.

I've mentioned before that my mom and Jonathan's dad will be participating in the Adventure Challenge on September 11th to help raise money for this wonderful organization if anyone feels led to make a donation there is a link on the Canuck Place website for the Adventure Challenge.

Pizza!

Creativity

Just thought I would write a quick post capturing the kids creativity. David made this Lego "town" all by himself. He also took a picture of himself which I thought was really cute. And Angeline just loves to do anything to mimic her big brother. She will sit and draw much longer then he did when he was 17 months (might be a girl thing too).

Today has been a bit of a challenge for me. I have been teaching David about "privileges." No TV, Gum, Dessert, or Computer if he doesn't co-operate. All I want him to do is help me pick up a few toys in the living room but it is proving to be a long day. Yesterday Angeline and I ate freezies in front of him because he wouldn't touch his lunch. I mad home made macaroni and cheese and he told me it was "bad." There are lots of cute things he does too like before going to bed he tells me "Mommy, I want to give you my kiss." He also has very cute bed time prayers.

Anyway, meeting Jonathan at the mall later to see if we can get a Queen size mattress and bed. We have officially run out of room in our Double. Starting to plan renovations to turn our basement laundry room into a second bathroom. We were talking about moving our bed room downstairs before baby is born but for now we will just focus on the bathroom and not try to get too far ahead of ourselves... I am getting a bit STRESSED!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer... looks like September is almost here!

19 Week Ultrasound

Had our 19 week ultrasound today... we are actually 20 weeks on Thursday. Everything went well. Baby is healthy. The technician asked us if we wanted to find out the gender before we started and we painfully said NO! We do want to know of course but we just can't let go of that anticipated moment at birth when the announcement is made. We got 4 nice pictures of Sugar Plum... these two were our favorites. Got to see baby moving lots. I have not been feeling Baby move much because the placenta is currently at the front... different then any of my other pregnancies.

I am feeling very relieved that everything looks great and happy that we are half way through this pregnancy. Now I am just counting down until we get to meet the newest addition to our family. I can't wait!

Angeline & the Slide

Can you believe she is only 16 months old?

Shuswap Lake Part I

We got back from our summer holidays at Shuswap Lake yesterday afternoon. We are still working on putting a few things away and settling in back at home. We had a wonderful vacation and great weather but it is always nice to be at home and I must say it felt good to sleep in my own bed!

During our week at Shuswap Angeline (16months old) said 7 new words... "bath, cookie, cracker, oh-oh, grandpa, go (can't remember the other one right now)."

David enjoyed rowing the dingy (which he does well), taking the dog for a walk, ridding his scooter down the hill, and driving grandpa's boat.

They both loved all the watermelon and extra desserts and playing peek-a-bo in between the tubes.

Jonathan and I enjoyed the extra hands to help out with the kids (3 sets of grandparents, 2 uncles and 1 aunt), the food, the chance to play a few games of settlers and mexican train and the time to visit with everyone. We also went mini golfing with David for the first time and his uncles and auntie and had ice-cream which is always a favorite. We also drove to Vernon on Monday to visit my Great-Grandpa.

I plan to post some more pictures and maybe a video or two... thus titling this post "Part I."

How does your garden grow?

I have been finding a bit more time lately to work on the garden. I have definitely had to water more often now that summer is here. This morning I took some pictures before I watered just to give you an idea of how our garden is growing. We also have some tomato plants but they aren't doing too well this year... not sure if we will get any big tomatoes. We have rasberries which have started and blueberries (no berries yet). We also have parsley and dill and we have already harvested and eaten our radishes. I planted some things too early I think that never grew including zucchini which is supposed to be easy (and I love zucchini). Next year I want to try broccoli because it is supposed to be delicious when home grown. I am learning lots and having fun and the kids like it too. There is only ever one ripe strawberry on our bush at a time because he always checks and eats them (but that's what they are for). I am hoping to get out some more soon, let the kids play while it is a bit cooler outside and get some MORE weeding done (there is always more weeding to do).

Carrots

Lettuce

Cherry Tomatoes, Cucumbers

Cherry Tomatoes

Potatoes

Noah's Roses

Strawberries

Peas

Shuswap

Just got back last night from our first trip up to Shuswap Lake this summer. The weather was great... it only rainned a short time the first afternoon. The kids had fun as you can see from the pictures. The first time David decided to go for a swim in the lake he just took off all his clothes and ran right in. He has no time for bathing suits... got some cute pictures of it but I didn't think they were really postable. Angeline's two piece is so cute. The bottoms are a bit big so when they get wet you can see her little bum. Even though we had fun it is always good to be back. We have another busy week and more company for the weekend. Looking forward to it!

David's 4th Birthday

David turns 4 at the end of this month. In some ways it is hard to believe but he has grown up so much in the past few months that I already think he is 4. Right now he is really into Toy Story and Cowboys. He watches the preview for Toy Story 3 and asks to watch it so that will probably end up being the first movie he see's in Theater. While we were on the Island Nana got him a cowboy hat and took him on a real train ride that got robbed by cowboys on horses so he loved that. He has now officially started to collect "real" Lego. We got him a lego table for his birthday (shhhh... it's a suprise) and Jonathan is also planning to set up his fish tank.

David likes to be funny. He is often doing things to make us laugh and he laughs to himself and says "David's funny." He says the cutest things all the time. When my sister gave him a foam sword I asked him if he was a pirate or a musketeer and he got quite upset and said "NO! David is a BOY!."

We had a birthday party for David yesterday and we did a bit of a Toy Story/Cowboy theme. David wanted a "Woody" cake so we compromised and I made Woody's boot. It turned out well and it was chocolate so he was happy.

Love you David!

David and the Zip Line

Visited some friends on the Island yesterday. David had the opportunity to ride their zip line and he loved it (despite the screaming). He saw one of the bigger kids do it and then he ran up the hill saying "David's turn... David's turn"... he waited in line and I thought he might chicken out but he did it. I think he went about six times. Angeline was a bit too young for the zip line but she enjoyed being carried around by Sam, being outside and just playing with the toys. Thanks for the visit!

Sugar Plum, Love at first sight

Today we had our first ultrasound. It was so nice to see our little Sugar Plum moving around. I can't feel her yet but she is definitely very active. We got a picture too which we are very excited about even if its not the best ultrasound picture ever. Still nice to have our first picture! We also got the news we were hoping for from our ultrasound. Sugar Plum's nucleo translucency fluid is measuring in the normal range. This doesn't mean that she doesn't have Trisomy 13 but it is a really good sign. We did some blood work today and will have some more blood work done in another 3 weeks and all of the results put together give us a good indication of Sugar Plum's health.

We have also managed to finally name baby as you may have noticed from the title and the above paragraph. We really wanted to chose something festive for the Christmas Season and we finally found something that we both liked. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions. So when you hear mention of Sugar Plum you now know we are talking about baby number four.

Baby #4

We are nearing our 11th week of pregnancy so we are more then 1/4 done. Not sure if that is really encouraging to me yet but I am finding that this pregnancy is going by fast.

We had a doctors appointment yesterday and got to hear baby's heart beating for the first time so that was really exciting. My uterus is the average size for what it should be at this stage so it seems that there is only 1 baby in there.

Went over my blood test results and discovered that there is actually a reason I am more tired this pregnancy so it is not just my imagination. I will have some more blood work done on the 9th when I have my ultrasound so we will see if things improve. Otherwise I may have to take some medication but it is nothing to worry about.

Looking forward to our ultrasound 1 week from tomorrow. Will be nice to see baby and hopefully get a picture. We are hoping to hear good news that baby is healthy but it may take a few weeks for results. With Angeline they told us the same day that everything was looking good but I guess it just depends if there is someone working who can determine that.

Still no nick-name for baby. I have one I like but not on the same page with Jonathan. Might just have to call this one "baby" until he or she arrives. Thankfully we have had no trouble picking actual names, just not sure what to call her at the moment. We are not planning to find out baby's gender this pregnancy.

Happy Mothers Day x4

This year it is happy mothers day x4 for me. We thought Mothers Day would be a great opportunity to announce our newest family member... due to arrive December 23, 2010. To some of you this is not a surprise... it is difficult keeping the 4th a surprise... especially when the 1st (David) announced to his Sunday school class last week that he was going to have another baby (cute)! I really can't keep it a secret either so I guess he gets that from me... we really are excited about this one. I actually felt twice as excited when I found out and I am hoping that means that we are having twins but that is a long shot.

Our first Ultrasound is scheduled for June 9th when we will be 12 weeks pregnant... another 4 and a bit weeks to go. We will know about baby's heath after that and will hopefully have some cute pictures to post too. My nausea has picked up quite a bit this last week... hopefully I won't have to suffer through my 16th week like I did with Angeline. But I keep reminding myself that is just part of being pregnant.

We are still working on a name to give baby #4 for the duration of this pregnancy... you may remember we called Angeline "Sweet Pea"... and still do occasionally. I would like to have a Christmas name of some type considering baby's due date... if you have any suggestions... Christmas or not please let us know.

We are not currently planning to find out baby's gender but we will see how we are feeling closer to our 20 week ultrasound.

New Camera

We got a new camera yesterday. The Canon Rebel Xsi. It's a camera we concidered a few years ago and even with some of the newer ones that have come out since I think it still meets our needs the best. We have been playing with it this morning. It is my fist time using a digital SLR... actually it is my first time using an SLR period. I had a lot of fun as you can see from my pictures.